The invention relates to a carton or sleeve for accommodating one or more articles for example cans, bottles or the like formed from one or more blanks of paperboard or other suitable foldable sheet material and more particularly to a carton capable of being formed into a sealed compartment including a cover flap with mean for releasably fastening the cover flap to the carton.
The invention is particularly useful where it is desirable for cartons containing articles to be enclosed to protect the or each article.
One example of reclosable sleeves formed from one or more blanks of cardboard is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,030, which illustrates a carton having integral hinged top that is reclosable. The top is provided by a front cover panel and a spacer panel secured to one side of the front cover panel to interfit with a mating upper portion of the front panel of a box. Fastening means is formed from a detached double layer portion of the front panel. However, the detached portion is attached to the inside surface of the cover flap resulting in a stepped non-flat front surface.
A second aspect of the invention is concerned with the provisions of a frangible connection for releasably fastening the cover flap. More particularly, a tear strip arrangement is disclosed.
There are several known types of tear line in common use, examples of which are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,28,552 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,089. However, one problem associated with known tear lines or strips is that the action of tearing is difficult to control. For example, the grain direction of the board or direction of tearing force will influence the tear direction.
To try to encourage tearing along a predetermined path tear lines are used.
A problem with known tear arrangements is that, in certain circumstances the tear may deviate from the desired path leading to an irregular tear line path or worse, deviation from the tear line completely which may result in destroying the integrity of the carton.